Birthday Baking
by isabellsah cullen
Summary: Alone on her birthday, Stephanie has hopes of baking some dessert as a present to herself. While it doesn't quite go to plan, Ranger comes in and saves the day once again. Random Fluff. Babe. Babe HEA.


This week is Stephanie's birthday – but it's also my birthday too! So this little fluffy random one-shot is a happy birthday to us both (although it may not seem like it at first for Stephanie!). I had this 90 percent written for last year's birthday... but never posted it. So, hope you enjoy it this year ;)

 **Warnings:** Babe, Language, Fluff.

 **Disclaimer:** As usual, all credit goes to JE for creating the characters and writing the books.

Birthday Baking

 **SPOV**

I cursed loudly and violently as I sat up on my kitchen counter, my right foot and right hand under the running water in the sink and a soaking wet tea towel draped across my right leg, just above my knee. My left hand also had a makeshift bandage wrapped around my palm.

Believe me, it's not what you're thinking. Whatever that may be.

Today was my birthday, you see. For the past few months, Ella had been giving me cooking lessons on various desserts – ever since my mother had refused to cook them for me any more when I'd broken up with my long-time boyfriend Joe Morelli and started seeing a very sexy CEO named Ranger Mañoso. Ranger was currently out of town after there had been some giant cock-up in the Atlanta office with their biggest client. So I was home alone, and had tried to bake myself some white choc chip, macadamia brownie cookies to cheer myself up. I'd planned to make a double batch, and take them over to Rangeman to share with the guys and enjoy a quiet night with them.

It had all started going downhill when I was chopping the macadamia nuts up, my right hand had slipped and my left palm had been sliced clean open across the middle. I'd patched myself up, cleaned up the blood and determinedly kept going. It went well after that for a while, and I got the two large trays of cookies in the oven. It was then that I realized I only had one oven mitten and one very thin tea towel.

I'd put the oven glove on my left hand to protect my cut and used the tea towel in my right. Getting the first tray out had been fine. The second tray though, had burned me through the tea towel and I'd panicked, dropping it where it seared a nasty burn across my leg, above my knee and proceeded to land on my foot and burn the shit out of me there to. To make matters worse, the smoke detector went off when some of the cookies fell into the open oven and started smoking on the bottom of it.

I was sniffling back tears when a tingle raced down my spine and I heard my front door open and close quietly.

"Don't come in here, Ranger," I said, my tears of pain and frustration gently falling down my face. "I don't want you to see this."

My back was to the entrance of my kitchen, which admittedly was poor planning on my part. To be fair, I'd just wanted to get my burns under cold water as quick as possible. I was fairly certain I was sitting on melted chocolate.

I jolted slightly as his arms wrapped around my waist from behind and his chin settled on my shoulder.

"Babe," he said quietly, before freezing when he noticed my injuries.

He slipped around to my side, taking my left hand in his. The cut had bled through the bandage and was stinging like crazy. Luckily I had three burns to take my mind off of the pain. His eyes lifted to my face where he blinked twice at my tears. He bent forward and kissed both of my eye lids and then my lips softly.

I opened my eyes again and watched him as he moved around the kitchen, turning off the oven, shutting the door to contain the smoke, and shutting off the smoke alarm. He paused at the tray of nicely baked cookies on the bench and moved to the cupboard, grabbing a large empty Tupperware container and dumping them inside swiftly.

I lost him for a moment as he left the kitchen. He returned a few minutes later with my overnight bag, packed, my purse, and the container of cookies sitting on top.

"Don't move, Babe," he said, kissing my forehead.

A couple more tears trickled out this time. "Okay," I sniffled as I kind of cried and laughed miserably at the same time. He paused and gave my lips a tender kiss before moving off again.

Within five minutes, he was back. He shut off the tap and lifted me into his strong arms, cradling me against his perfect chest. I buried my face in his neck as he carried me out of the apartment and to the stairs. We paused on the landing between the first and second floor and I sensed someone next to us. I didn't want to look up and let them see my red, puffy, crying face though, so I just burrowed in tighter against Ranger, inhaling his scent and letting it comfort me.

"Make sure it doesn't burn down. Organise a cleaning crew in the morning," Ranger said quietly.

"Yes, sir," a man's voice answered. I thought it might have been Roy's but I wasn't going to look up to confirm it.

Ranger carried me out into the parking lot. He set me down on my feet, er _foot_ rather, next to his Porsche Spyder, but had the passenger door open and me settled inside within seconds. I cringed, thinking about the mess I was getting on his seats, but tried to focus on him as he got behind the wheel and revved the engine. We were racing out of my parking lot in seconds.

"I thought you were in Atlanta," I murmured quietly, closing my eyes and resting my head back on the head rest as his warm hand settled high on my thigh.

He gave me a gentle squeeze that had my eyes opening. I tilted my head so I could watch his profile as the city light illuminated his face every so often.

"It's your birthday," he said as explanation, with a small shrug.

My heart warmed, and I gave him a wobbly smile.

"I didn't expect you to come back," I whispered.

"I know, Babe."

"Did you get everything sorted?"

"Enough that they can fix it from here. The meeting I had this afternoon with the CEO of the affected company was generally positive."

"You drove back after working all day?"

"Babe."

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him that I loved him; to tell him _how much_ I loved him; how much I appreciated him placing me before his work. But as usual, I swallowed it down. We'd been… 'dating' for the last few months. He generally spent four nights of the week in my apartment. I'd usually spend one night a week in his. The other two nights were usually when our schedules conflicted. We hadn't moved in together, hadn't even discussed it. He'd not yet told me that he loved me, and I was worried that if I said it first, I'd scare him off. Or even worse yet, that I'd read this entire situation wrong, and what we had was nothing more than a fling. It was so hard to tell, especially when neither one of us was comfortable talking about feelings. I hoped that he was as serious about me as I was him, but I also knew not to let my hopes get too high. As much as I loved what we did have now, I could admit to myself that I wanted more. Even if I did never say it aloud, or admit it to him. I knew I would go along like this for however long he'd let me into his life like this.

"You're quiet, Babe. How's the pain?" Ranger asked, shaking me out of my introspection.

We were parked in the Rangeman garage.

"Okay," I said, swallowing heavily.

He got out of the car and came around to my side, scooping me out and kicking the door shut.

"Liar," he murmured.

The elevator was open and waiting for us allowing Ranger to stride straight in. It took us to the third floor, where Bobby's office and the infirmary were located. Bobby held the door open for us and then shut it behind us.

"Hey, Steph. Heard you had a bit of an accident," Bobby commented as Ranger sat down in the visitor's chair with me safely clasped in his lap.

"Yeah," I just sighed, pointing to my four different wounds.

Bobby set to work patching me up, patting my shoulder comfortingly when he was all done a good twenty minutes later.

"Try to take care of yourself, Steph. We kinda like having you around here," Bobby said with a lopsided grin.

"Thanks, Bobby," I replied tiredly, wiggling out of Ranger's grip and standing.

He frowned up at me before standing as well and giving Bobby a nod of respect and a complicated handshake. When we were outside of the infirmary, the closed door giving us some privacy, I placed my hand on Ranger's chest, making him pause.

"I know you drove all the way back to see me, and spend my birthday with me, but I'm really exhausted, cranky, and hurting. It'd probably be better if you just took me home," I said uncomfortably.

I knew Ranger wouldn't expect sex from me when I was hurting – hell, I don't think he _ever_ expected sex from me. He liked it, he wanted it, but he'd never push me for it. And he almost always respected my thoughts and opinions on the matter. I say almost, because he _could_ be very persuasive.

That was why I was kind of surprised when he stared at me for a beat and said, "No."

His arm wrapped around my shoulders tightly, drawing me into his body as we climbed back into the elevator.

"No?" I asked, puzzled as I tried to look up and get a read on his face.

He didn't say anything more, just bundled me back into his car and drove us out of the garage, and not in the direction of my apartment. His hand resettled back on my thigh as he drove us into the night, leaving the centre of Trenton and heading out of the city altogether.

I was kind of bewildered by his behaviour. Well, not the strong, silent part. Or the lack of details. Okay, so it wasn't really bewildering – I was more bewildered at where we were going and why he'd want me along when I was tired and cranky and not going to put out.

I managed to doze a little, because the next thing I noticed was the car pulled to a stop outside of an impressive fence and security system. The house we pulled up to was not a mere house by any stretch of the imagination. It was definitely more along the lines of a mansion. We pulled into an eight bay parking garage that held no other cars and I wondered just where the hell we were.

Ranger handed me the box of cookies and grabbed the two duffle bags out of the back of his car. He used a fob to open a side door that led from the garage into the large house. He then led us straight up the stairs to the third floor and into the master bedroom suite. I didn't have time to look around before the cookies were taken out of my hands, our duffle bags were dumped by the bed and Ranger had gently nudged me to sit down on the small couch in the sitting area of the bedroom.

I watched nervously as Ranger paced back and forth in front of me. He stopped suddenly and pinned me with his gaze.

"Do you love me, Steph?" he demanded roughly.

"Of course," I replied instantly, biting down hard on my bottom lip. I hadn't meant to blurt that out. Shit.

He looked at me a little surprised.

"You do?" he asked again.

I worried my bottom lip, trying to figure out if he wanted me to love him or not. I figured the cat was already out of the bag, so I might as well go in for a pound. And why did he sound so surprised? I wasn't _that_ good at hiding my feeling, surely.

"I love you, Ranger. I'm in love with you .Have been for years now," I answered shakily, shrugging my shoulders nervously.

"Why haven't you said anything?" he growled.

I jolted, taken aback by his angry tone.

"Because I didn't think you wanted to hear it," I whispered quietly.

He just blinked at me a few times.

"What?" he finally said.

"I didn't know if telling you I loved you would drive you away. I'm not sure if you're as serious about me as I am you – I didn't want to lose what we have. I don't want to lose you,"

"Fuck, Babe. Shit."

It was my turn to blink at him now. I just kept blinking as he didn't say anything else. My tears came back and I had to turn my head so he wouldn't see me cry again tonight.

I jumped when his warm hand settled against my cheek, and glanced at him slowly to find him kneeling on the ground next to me.

"I'm not going anywhere," he murmured a second before his lips caught mine and gave me an achingly sweet kiss.

He dropped his forehead against mine and we just breathed together quietly for a few moment.

"I love you, Stephanie, and I'm about as fucking serious as a man can be about a woman. I'm not going anywhere and I'm sure as hell not letting you go," he said assuredly.

Fresh tears fell again as I wrapped my arms around him and held on tight.

He loved me, thank God.

"That's good," I sniffled.

"I'm not done," he murmured, gazing deep into my eyes.

"O-oh?" I stammered, wondering what else he could possibly add to that.

"I need more of you in my life. I need you in my bed every night. I want to wake up to you every morning."

 _He wanted more of me? Me? Disaster-prone Stephanie Plum? God, all of those things sounded so nice._

I swallowed hard, "Okay, so what exactly does that mean?"

"I want you to move in with me. I want to take you with me when I need to go to another office. I want you in a management position in my company."

I froze slightly and started picking at the bandage around my right leg. Surprisingly, none of those things he'd said made me panic. Not a single one. I'd wanted more with him for some time now. I'd had no idea, not in my wildest dreams, that he would want all of those things with me though. I mean sure, becoming a _manager_ at Rangeman was a slight, _cough,_ step up to what I currently did there. But Ranger wouldn't want me there if he didn't think I could handle it. His encouragement and support meant everything to me – helped me be the best version of me I could be. Knowing he loved me _, loved me-loved me_ , would only help me soar.

"That's a lot," I finally said softly, glancing up at him from underneath my lashes.

He shifted closer, his expression changing just enough that I could see his determination, his resolve to convince me that this was the next step for us.

"No it's not. I want you, period. The details aren't important. If you want me like I want you, then everything I've just described is something that you want too," he insisted, squeezing my hands gently, his eyes locked on mine.

I felt the prickling of tears behind my eyes once more. I loved this man so much.

"Are you sure?" I asked hoarsely, "I mean, about me? In your apartment? In your company?" I added quickly to his suddenly dark look.

"Babe." He lifted his hand and softly brushed it against my cheek, his eyes softening.

"Seriously – did you not see what a disaster my solo birthday baking turned out to be?" I muttered, giving him one last, and final, opportunity to back out. If he didn't take this chance, he was going to be stuck with me for the rest of his life, our lives. Boy, did that have a nice ring to it.

He paused with whatever he was about to say, closed his mouth, and studied me carefully. A small grin appeared on his handsome face. "How about I just make sure you aren't alone on your birthday anymore? Deal?"

I threw myself fully into his embrace as tears of joy streaked down my face. "You can't scare me off that easy. Happy Birthday, Babe."

He loved me, he wanted me, and he didn't even care about what a disaster I was in the kitchen.

"I love you," I whispered shyly into his shoulder. It would take me a while to get used to saying it. I might never get used to it. But I was sure as hell gonna practice. Every day.

"I love you, Babe."

I gave a final sniffle and pulled back so I could see his face once more.

"So, do you want to try one of my cookies?"

"Babe."

 _The end._


End file.
